Housing Conference Outlines Challenges And Actions For Local Organisations

New actions to tackle local housing issues have been at the forefront of Teignbridge's first ever Housing Annual Conference & Strategy Event.

The event was run on Thursday 29 March at the Courtenay Centre in Newton Abbot, bringing together many different organisations to discuss the most important issues relating to housing in the district.  Organised and hosted by Teignbridge District Council, guests included Teign Housing, South West Landlords Association, the NHS, Citizens Advice Bureau, Devon and Cornwall Police and more.

Participants saw presentations from council housing officers and took part in workshops addressing some of the biggest challenges faced by Teignbridge residents and authorities in providing essential housing services.  These include:

Helping those living in areas of low income and job deprivation

Ensuring fair access to services, especially for customers in rural areas

Helping the district's high number of older residents who are vulnerable to cold, slips, trips and falls, and the increasing number of residents with dementia

Providing the right services for an ageing population.  Local housing market assessments predict the largest single group in the area in coming years will be single people aged 65 and above, and that the largest number of people moving to the area will residents aged between 45 and 65, many of whom are moving in to retire.

Cllr Philip Vogel, Teignbridge Executive Spokesperson for Housing and Planning said:

"We were extremely pleased to welcome so many people to this event.  It provided a great opportunity to discuss big issues together and think about how we can work in partnership to make sure we provide the best possible services to local people.

"This council is prepared to back its Council Plan aspirations with a £1M revolving infrastructure fund, using New Homes Bonus money in the first instance to make things happen.  We want to work alongside partners who are resourceful, innovative, and present cutting edge solutions to help us achieve our aspirations and improve the quality of life for our residents here in Teignbridge.

"We have an ambitious Council Plan for 2011 - 2015, along with an emerging 20 year plan for jobs, homes, local facilities and the environment.  Now we're looking at how we can work together with other organisations to really deliver on our aims, and judging by the response at this conference I'm confident we'll do just that."

Through Teignbridge's Council Plan 2011 - 2015 and events like the Housing Conference, commitments have been made to continue efforts to:

promote projects to address deprivation, enable residents to access services more easily, ensure that residents get the benefits they are entitled to, and strive to improve housing in deprived areas;

provide more, better quality, affordable homes, and through partnership with others, offer a range of healthier lifestyle choices to keep residents well. To support older and disabled residents living in their own homes;

reduce the number of empty homes, following success over the past year with 383 brought back in to use;

encourage private landlords to accept rents which residents can afford;

work with local communities and partner organisations to help find suitable Gypsy and Traveller sites;

make sure as many new homes as possible are affordable for local people;

put in place long term plans to meet housing needs now and in the future;

find new ways to ensure local residents have priority access to new social and affordable housing;

look at specific proposals for housing types suitable for older residents;

look at the types of letting tenancies most appropriate for Teignbridge;

become a beacon district for custom-built homes - local homes, built by local people, for local people.

The plans are finding support from local housing providers and other organisations, many of whom attended the event to discuss how the challenges can be met.

Mike Hanrahan, Chief Executive of Teign Housing said:

"Like anywhere else Teignbridge has its challenges when it comes to providing housing services.  There's an ageing population, a wide rural area to serve, small pockets of economic deprivation and a clear shortage of affordable homes.

"It's good to see that there is the will and the plan to meet these challenges, and we're keen to continue working alongside the council to make things better.  We have a good partnership, most recently demonstrated by our joint commitment to solve the issue of the unauthorised traveller site at Haldon Ridge, and we are keen to keep developing this link.

"The more we can all work together, the stronger our relationships become.  This is really important because it helps us cut through red tape and bureaucracy, getting to the heart of the issues and taking real action."

Aside from setting out plans, attendees also heard about the recent achievements of Teignbridge Council's Housing Service.  Highlights include:

Successfully preventing homelessness for 696 households by helping 397 households access appropriate private sector accommodation and 272 households access social housing

Securing funding alongside Teign Housing to redevelop travellers site at Haldon Ridge

Reducing the number of empty homes in the district by 383

A new exception site policy which helps provide more rural affordable homes

Supporting 145 households adapting their accommodation to meet specific needs

Facilitating loans for improvement work on 27 properties

314 private sector properties improved through intervention by private sector housing team.

http://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=16012